Romney: Both sides ‘holding a hard line’ on Ukraine, Israel aid package

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on Sunday that both political parties were holding a “hard line” on aid negotiations, rejecting the idea it was just Republicans who were in a position to concede.

In an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” with Kristen Welker on Sunday, Romney said one of the major holdups of the bill is on the matter of border security.

“It’s not just Republicans that are holding a hard line. It’s Democrats who are holding a hard line. Either side can move and can get this done,” Romney said. “And here’s the position of my side and our side. And that is: we have gone from one to 2000 encounters, illegal encounters, at the border a day under the three prior presidents under Bush, Obama and Trump, one to 2000 a day. Now we’re seeing 10 to 12,000 a day. As Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman said, we’re basically seeing Pittsburgh show up the border every month.”

“We’re at a rate of incursions into the country of about 4 million a year. That’s larger than the population of 24 of our states. So we want to solve that to secure the border,” Romney added. “I just saw the President of the United States say that we’ve got to secure the border. He’s right. So any effort that doesn’t do that will be rejected by Republicans. We want to get it back to the level that existed under the three prior presidents.”

Asked whether Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin are happy to see a growing number of Republicans say they won’t accept a “black check” to Ukraine, Romney insisted that that’s not an option anyone is advocating and that “democracy is messy.”

“We’re not going to write a blank check. We’re going to evaluate exactly how the money is spent. What we’re going to do is provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to defend themselves against a brutal invasion by Putin, who is a thug and a murderer. So that’s what we’re gonna do now,” Romney said.

“I think they realize I think Putin and Xi recognize that democracy is messy, that our system is not authoritarian. We don’t have a king. We don’t have a dictator. They’re dictators. They like to make a big deal out of the process that we go through. But you know what? It has worked for America in the past, it will work in the future. We’ll get through this.

“And ultimately, don’t forget the president was the one that put the border and the border security issue as part of this package. This is not a Republican issue. He brought it to the front. And that’s why we’re dealing with it,” he added.

Senate Republicans last week blocked a bill unveiled by Democrats that would have provided additional aid to Ukraine and Israel over the lack of border provisions. Senators voted 49-51, failing to reach the 60-vote threshold that would allow the proposal to come up for consideration.